This year you’ve learned to read (just the other day you read “The Lorax” to me almost entirely on your own), you’ve made lots of new friends and done great work as a kindergartener at school, you now swim like a fish, and you’ve worked super hard in therapy.

We are oh so very very proud of you, little big girl, and we are so happy you are part of our lives. We love you forever and always, and hope you have a birthday that is as wonderful and amazing as you are.

It’s hard to believe it’s been three years. It seems like just yesterday we held you in our arms, sleeping peacefully after the tough work of being born.

Precious and peaceful, screaming and shouting, laughing and dancing, running and jumping, talking and singing, hugging and cuddling, joyful and tragic, we love you so dearly, our little big man!

I hope your day is magical and amazing, because you certainly are.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/enssle

We’re just catching up, and we’ve got some more recent photos and videos coming soon, so watch this space!

Oh, and Anna’s been doing just great with her new cast (which is very, very pink!). Seriously. We’re all amazed at her positive attitude and she’s getting some really good therapy done. Her new therapist said that the cast might just make it all simpler for her, in a way, by removing the constant conflict in her mind about which hand to use for each and every task.

Tara and I are starting to get into a bit of a rhythm? Maybe? Well, okay maybe not. It’ll take awhile, I think. Thrice-weekly contributions of yummy delicious food from my co-workers are indeed helping, however. We weren’t great about cooking during the week with just one child, and with two it’s proving even more challenging. (Thanks Foraker!)

Meanwhile: I can’t believe I’m sick again? Not. Fair.

Meanwhile: Noah’s doing well. Working on getting his days and nights straight, but otherwise just doing the usual new baby things (i.e. sleeping, eating, eating, awake for 15 minutes, sleeping, eating, pooping, sleeping, eating, etc.). There are some new photos up on the Flickr site.

It was too snowy yesterday for us to get to Anna’s physical therapy appointment in the morning, and the riding center cancelled her hippotherapy because it was too cold (apparently even horses don’t like 7 degree weather!). So we spent the day hanging out with family.

Debbie’s been cooking up a storm before she leaves on Thursday, trying to stock our freezer. And the good folks at Foraker are chipping in too — at this rate we won’t have to cook anything until mid-March or so. Which is awesome, and for which we are exceedingly grateful!

Okay. Time for a quick nap before I have to hop in the shower and get ready to get Ms. Anna up and moving and off to daycare before I head in to work.

There are also some new photos of Mr. Noah. You can always view Noah-specific photos on Flickr in his own, personal photo set.

Everyone here is doing well enough. Tara and I are splitting shifts and so far have managed to be able to do a good job of alternating really bad nights.

Oh, and Granny Debbie and Tara painted Anna’s room pink today (I got carpet cleaning duty). We thought she’d lose her mind with joy at the “pinkalicious-ness” of it all. Instead: “Hmmm. Hmmm. I’m… I’m really hungry. Can I have a treat?”

So much for trying to make the toddler happy!?

Everyone’s doing well. Noah’s still spending the vast majority of his time sleeping (as is only right and good!). Anna is as enthusiastic about her baby brother as you could expect an almost-three-year-old to be (“he’s a real baby!”). Max greeted the newcomer with reasonable interest and has spent most of the afternoon upstairs hanging out with all of us (compare to Anna’s arrival, when he hid in the basement for about a week). And Granny’s been a superstar, handling most of the cooking and cleaning.

We’re off to bed soon.  We’ll see how our first night all together goes — here’s hoping we manage to get a little more sleep than we did at the hospital.

But it’s good to be home.

Note: I just posted the day’s photos on our Flickr site, including a pretty cool video of Anna singing a rousing rendition of “baa baa black sheep, havin’ you da wolf” for her baby brother.

We’ve posted a bunch of photos on the Flickr site, so take a look.

It’s been a long day. Noah’s doing great — sleeping mostly, but also doing a generally good job of breast feeding. We’ve had lots of family in the room today visiting, which made for a busy day. (Frankly, I’m exhausted).

Very probably heading home tomorrow, which Ms. Anna is extremely excited about. She’s missing her momma, and wants to have her baby brother home “right now”.

Off to try and catch a few winks now. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes!

Updated 7/4/2008, by Neal: Now with even more photos! I just uploaded a bunch from last night. My brother Colin and his wife are in town, and I was a little crazy with my new camera. There’s a great series of Anna portraits there though!

Updated 7/5/2008, by Neal: Now with video! Turns out Flickr (the folks who host our photos) have started a new video service. I uploaded a movie of Anna dancing to “Happy Feet” there. Let us know how this works for you?